Mobile paying $50,000 to repair ice-machine for rink used once per year

The city of Mobile is paying $50,000 to repair the ice machine in the Civic Center. Disney on ice, pictured here in 2006, is currently the only regular production that uses the rink.

MOBILE, Ala. -- The city of Mobile is spending nearly $50,000 to repair a giant air conditioner at the Civic Center that is used once or twice per year to make an ice rink for a traveling Disney show.

The money will come out of a $75,000 line item in the city’s annual budget for repairs to Civic Center. In addition to the repair budget, the city also subsidizes the center’s operations with a $1 million transfer from the general fund.

Bobby Bostwick, the city’s cultural and civic development director, told the City Council last week that the repair is worth the money. Disney on Ice is “one of the few shows that makes a lot of profit for the city,” typically $20,000 to $30,000 with each run, he said.

The city needs to have the chiller fixed by April 17 in order to be able to host the show, scheduled for April 22-24.

Jay Hagerman, the Civic Center’s general manager, said the $750,000 chiller system was installed in the mid-1990s so the facility could host a minor-league hockey team, the Mobile Mystics.

Hagerman said the venue has hosted other ice-rink events in the past, but Disney is currently the only production requiring use of the chiller. The show comes once, sometimes twice, per year, he said.

Bostwick said that, had the chiller gone unrepaired, the city might have had to compensate the Disney on Ice production company for lost revenue. Additionally, he said, the city’s contract with the company, which runs through the next three years, would be jeopardized.

The company responsible for the Disney on Ice show, Feld Entertainment, runs several other shows at the Civic Center, including a non-skating Disney show, a monster truck rally and a circus.